Articles of Faith

Chel is bored and miserable in a city where he was sent to be a sworn man to his step-uncle, up until he unintentionally becomes the protector of a young prince running from war. Up until the two of them get kidnapped by mercenaries, which only makes things much more complicated. Misfortunes start after that for real. The title of the book really gives you a clue about what is the best about the story; it really shines when Chel, prince Tarfel and the Black Hawks mercenary group interact and go through all sorts of insane things together. So really, my recommendation is that you should just push through the first part with the kind of... not particularly interesting stuff and then everything will be awesome. This little wait is the reason why I took one star from it, because I feel there is a lot more ahead of us and the second book won't need the setup. (Hopefully book 2 also won't disappoint like [b:The True Bastards 34299732 The True Bastards (The Lot Lands, #2) Jonathan French https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1560049511l/34299732.SY75.jpg 55353538] did to me, sadly.) The characters are all fine by themselves, though it all makes sense with them as a group. Their interactions are fun and range from bickering to grudging respect. Then again, there are still a lot of things to discover about them so hopefully that will happen. The story was unpredictable, not necessarily in a huge way, I simply had no idea where they were going with the plot. The big, final plot twist wasn't bad, though it felt kind of abrupt and to me not all that jawdropping. Not like that's a bad thing, I don't mind. Definitely a book I recommend and I'm excited about the sequel.